I’ve just made few screenshots of a new, extremely usefull Window
Manager – wmii (window
manager improved 2) I discovered while using grml.

Grml is not very big or well-known Linux distro but I found it very
smooth-running and reliable. Grml is based on Debian and as they
advertise themselves on their webpage:
it is “a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of
texttools and system administrators”…Hmm – I was curious – I am a
kind of newbie – running Linux only for just a year – but the curiosity
has won! :o) Thanks to grml I’ve learned quite a bit about (new for me)
command line programs which are simply fantastic! I am using centericq
to communicate with my son and friends now, muttng (a bit newer version
of mutt – mail program) became my mail client, I use also text version
of gftp to upload my pictures to the ftp remote-server. Why am I doing
it…? He he – because it’s actually much easier and quicker than using
other, perhaps more graphically fancy tools.

But – not only! Back to the beginning of the post: grml is coming with
not well-known but very smart and effective X environments. It has no
Gnome or KDE but instead it brings you some usefull Window Mangers. Of
some of them you probably have heard before – like fluxbox or FVWM (it
has also “mini” version of one of the prettiest Window Managers around
– FVWM-Crystal). But there are
some others of which it is not so loud – like wmii

This is really minimalistic but very actually: EASY to learn Window
Manager. I strongly recommend you to try it out. One become really
effective while working in the environment :). From their webpage:”wmii is a
dynamic window manager for X11. It supports classic and
dynamic window management with extended keyboard, mouse, and filesystem
based remote control. It replaces the workspace paradigm with a new
tagging approach.” Gheee – it sounds scary, isn’t it? 😉 But actually
it’s not: it just means that you can control your computer through the
keyboard shortcuts – that you can have many workspaces (read: “as if”
few computers opened in the same time in one 😉 ) and those workspaces
can be called by you (tagged). Wmii “keeps” order on your desktop – it
openes each window in its own column or raw – so they are easy to work
with!

But wmii is not only brilliantly working – it can also be pretty :):

It all depends on probably taste of the person – but I likw the look
-and – if you like transparency and at the same time you are not afraid
of the command line applications 😉 – you could give wmii a try. You
can for instance open your “text tools” in transparent terminal (f.i.
aterm -tr) and enjoy nice wallpaper underneath… or you can try
to “tweak” (edit) configuration files of your command line tools to
make them transparent. Here’s the link to the site of the person who
knows much about transparency and has a lot of useful tips: Minimalistic transparent
x-desktop.

I wish you a lot of fun – both with grml and wmii,

tami 🙂

PS. You can, of course enjoy wmii in other distributions as well (at
leat Debian based) – but I recommend you very warm to try grml, too.
It’s worth it! And soon (probably at the beginning of March) – they
will release new version.

PS2. And here is the welcome help you can get from wmii team at the beginning of session – I recommend you strongly to read it even before you open your new Window Manager 😉 :